24/4/1937
Record updated 24-Apr-07
A great sports car driver, Joest won a number of major races including the 24 Hour race at Daytona before becoming a successful team owner, winning Le Mans seven times.
Reinhold Joest started racing in 1962 with a Porsche 75S hillclimbing at the Eberbach and untill 1967 Joest concentrated on hillclimbs, winning the German Championship twice.
In 1966 he moved to circuit racing, winning his class first time out in the 1000Ks at the Nurburgring. He took overall victory at the 1000K's on the legendary Nordschleife, arguably the most difficult track in the world, twice and also took class wins on six occasions.
He became a works Porsche driver in 1971. And, though he won numerous races for them he never fulfilled his ambition of winning le Mans. In 1969 he finished third in a Ford GT40, and again in 1972 in the Porsche 908/2 long tail. Then in 1978 and 1980 he finished second in the Porsche 936.
He did however win the Interseries, several races in the sports car world championship and, in 1980, the Daytona 24 Hour race.
He retired from driving in 1981 with victory in the 9 hours of Kylami. Not many drivers go out on such a high and fewer still make the transition from driver to team owner so successfully.
Then with his own team he finally won Le Mans not once though but seven times!
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